From The Spectator. THE BISHOP OF ARGYLL AND THE ISLES. BISHOP EWING'S death, at an age when of so great a man when he was taken he is a man capable of new thoughts and from it. The Pope has not been put to alive to Italian sympathies. so much trouble. Impatient journalists, who took for granted that he must die, and had got ready their elaborate accounts of his life and policy, could not bear to see so much good matter wasted, and kindly allowed him to learn exactly what they thought of him. His fair beginning, his ignominious flight, his inor-a much longer career might fairly have dinate pretensions, his alternations of been hoped for him- he was only fiftyhumility and anger were duly chronicled, nine-deprives the Episcopal Church of and he could read what sort of a Pope Scotland of, we believe, her only Broadcurrent history would pronounce Pius IX. Church Bishop, and the Anglican Comto have been. He has returned good for munion in general of its most spiritual evil, and seems bent on living long and benignant prelate. No one would enough to permit these effusions to be have said of Bishop Ewing, as it has so forgotten, and so to permit them to be re- often been said of some of the most libproduced without the necessity of change. eral thinkers of the English Church, that But he is old and ill, and the end cannot he cared more for free thought than for probably be far off. The interest, there- the spirit of worship. His mind was open fore, which is felt in the appointment of enough to all fair intellectual considerahis successor is not relaxed, and those tions. As the beautiful and thoughtful who have the charge of nominating a new volumes of sermons which he lived to see Pope have all their plans arranged. It is through the press, but not to see in the said that, after full discussion, it has been hands of the public, shows, he had no determined to appoint none but an Ital- cut-and-dried answer to the difficulties of ian. The name even of his successor thoughtful sceptics; only they could not has been given, and it is rumoured that penetrate him, for he felt too profoundly the Cardinal of Naples is the lucky man; the light and strength beneath them. He but nothing can be more uncertain than was a hearty disciple of the Christianity such speculations. The leading motive of the late Mr. Erskine, of Linlathen, who which has induced the electors to deter- died only three years before him, and in mine on appointing an Italian is said to whose spiritual mind and life Dr. Ewing be that of appointing a Pope who might found just that link between Christ and seem naturally fitted to wield the tempo- the life of our own day which seems to be ral power when it is restored to him. wanting to so many of us, a link supThe chief of the Roman States is not plying the need of a practical modern inonly the head of the Church, but an Ital- terpreter of the mind of Christ, rather ian prince, and it would be dangerous to than any intellectual answer to intelcall on his Italian subjects to bear among lectual difficulties. At the time of Mr. their other burdens the yoke of a foreign- Erskine's death, a powerful and thoughtFrom this point of view an Italian is ful writer who knew him intimately spoke to be chosen because he will be best fit- of him thus in these columns:-"Eighty ted to profit by the triumph of the Church years had not naturalized him here, nor when the destroyers of the temporal pow-delivered him from the home-sickness er are conquered; but then it is possible with which he yearned after a fuller vision that this triumph may never be achieved, of things divine than that allotted, exand stern necessity may teach the next cept in rare moments, to this stage of our Pope to postpone his dreams of being a being. One never could with him wholly King to a very distant future. In that escape the feeling that he belonged to a case also it may be very useful that he different spiritual climate. To some, should be an Italian, for he will then perhaps, this aloofness from ordinary life know the real feelings of his countrymen, was seen only in the result of intensifyand will comprehend the depth of the ing a very peculiar individuality, and shelgulf which bitter memories have placed tering it from all those influences which between them and the head of their make men common-place. . . . . . This Church. After the recent vote of its Par-outward universe was to him no more liament, it is impossible that Italy should than a parable of the true Cosmos ever hope to be reconciled with Pius IX., but before his eye, where all things, great it may look forward to the time when it and small, were held in their places by will be reconciled with his successor, if the spiritual gravitation of love, and he er. was for ever struggling to utter his im- poses so that we could wait in patience pressions of spiritual laws to him far for the explanation of those mysteries. more unquestionable than those by which He was almost intolerant of those forms the outward world is ordered." Such was of Christianity which seemed to him to the Bishop of Argyll's spiritual teacher, place new veils between Christ and man. and Dr. Ewing's whole mind and thought The sacramental theory of the Roman were devoted to the task of transmitting Church was abhorrent to him. He was to the world, so far as it came under his as wroth as it was in his nature to be influence, the chief ideas of his friend and against the notion that divine light could master. He had not the rare spiritual be secured by machinery of any sort, originality of Mr. Erskine,—indeed, not that of a Council or otherwise. He had one man in a century has, - but he was seen much of the interior of the Catholic possessed wholly by the same spiritual Church in Sicily and Italy, and was conideas, that Revelation is light and vinced that the spread of infidelity in knowledge, that it carries with it its own these countries was due to the externalauthentication, that we are not to look ity of the Roman Catholic worship and outside the teaching for the proof of the the hard shell of its dogma. If ever he teaching, but to find it in the teaching it- said a severe or a narrow thing, it was self, that it is a light which makes the against the ritualists and sacerdotalists, stupendous system of nature not indeed but even then not against them, but transparent, but still full of meaning to against their ideas. He had indeed little us; that it delivers us from the tempta- sympathy with what seems to us a true tion to ask too curiously "Why were we belief, that divine help comes into the made thus?" and helps us to accept our heart as much through unconscious as lot as it is, in perfect conviction that it is conscious channels. In symbols he a lot prescribed by love; that Revelation could believe, because symbols are but enables us to suffer contentedly, if we the hieroglyphics of thought. In chanmust suffer, not because we like it, but nels of divine help that were something because we recognize the love from more than symbolic, that fed the spirit which, though shrouded in mystery, the through the body, he could not believe, suffering comes. The Bishop of Argyll but spoke of any pleas offered for them preached this perfect absolute self-suffi- as mere subtle apologies for magic and ciency of the Gospel to reveal the un-incantation. known God, up to the point where faith Dr. Ewing had real humour, the kind is merged in knowledge. He was impa- of humour which so often accompanies tient even of such forms of prayer as the great simplicity and childlike, evangelic persistent cries for mercy in our liturgy. feeling, and he often showed it, not only To harp so plaintively on the cry for in Convocation, but in his charges to his mercy was, he thought, a distrust of God, clergy. His attack, in 1869, on the then a virtual denial of revelation, and showed expected dogma of the infallibility of the a tendency to ignore the fact that God, so Pope was a fair illustration of this hufar from needing repeated and pertina-mour. The Bishops who met at Rome cious entreaty on our parts, was yearn- were the navigators, he said, of the bark ing for our repentance and inspiring the that is called the Church. "The night very hope we were putting forth. There is dark. There is no open vision. The was a great childlikeness and simplicity track is unknown. The sailors meet and about Dr. Ewing. He had gentleness declare that the captain is infallible, and great sweetness, no bishop of our and retire, it may be, if they please, to time fulfilled the paternal idea of the sleep. . . . . It is Saul seeking enchantbishop's office as he did, but he harped ments; a meeting of wizards to create a like a child on the main string of his de- brazen head like Bacon's or a calculating vout and simple theology. He was like head like Babbage's. There is no differthe Apostle John at the time when he was ence in principle between this and the carried into the church only to say, methods of the Buddhists to discover "Little children, love one another." Not truth; we read of an election of the Dathat Dr. Ewing's modes of expression lai-Lama, the pontifical sovereign of Thiwere wanting in variety, fancy, and illus- bet, as follows. It is the result of the trative imagination, but that the burden election of 1841, reported to the Empeof them was always the same. The gospel was an unveiling. It did not explain the mysteries of life, nature, and history, but it revealed their divine pur - ror: Your servant, Meng-Pa, inserting his hand within the urn upon the altar, reverently proceeded to draw forth one of the slips. The inscription on the Nature as a whole is silent, dark, stupen dous. slip was as follows: 'The son of Tse-story of Jacob, to which we have rewang-teng-tche, Thibstan, present age ferred:four years.' All the attendant Lamas exclaimed unanimously, with unfeigned delight, that the lot having now fallen upon Creator Spiritus. It is the Spirit which underIt was the Spirit which fashioned itthis child, it is placed beyond a doubt stands it. It is that which signifieth and givthat the genuine re-embodiment of the eth life; and so far as man understands, he has Dalai-Lamas has appeared in the world, it-so far as he has it, he understands. So and the Church has a ruler for its govern- far as man understands, he has life, and is in ment. The minds of the people are glad- intercourse and at one with the Spirit of the dened and at rest." Of course, the Ro- universe, at one with the Most High, its and man Catholics will by no means accept Behold how great a matter a little spirit is. his Creator, and Sustainer, and Governor. that account of their doctrine of infalli-As man recognizes and comes to this, a great bility. But no one can deny that it puts with great humour and force the objection to all external guarantees for the accuracy of revelation. calm enters into him; he has not only looked upon God and lived, but he comes to live by looking. Jacob has become Israel; the Sun has risen on Peniel; and if he halts upon his No man of really spiritual nature can thigh, what is it when death has been swalbe described, for the simple reason that lowed up in victory, and the dark angel has the spiritual side of the mind, which is become the angel of light-the light found to the highest and most important side, be the product of the darkness -- and the hard shades away into the infinite, and all that ribs and skull of the destroyer are changed is left within our grasp is a group of im- into the wings and blooming features of a pressions which carry with them the ap-known into the one and eternal love and rightmessenger from heaven, and the traveller unpearance of converging upon this life eousness? Amen. from an indefinitely wider region of the spiritual universe. There was something And the Bishop himself, though he was of evangelical simplicity about Dr. Ewing, so childlike, playful, and spiritual, was both in the highest sense and, to a cer- not without the masculine strength which tain extent, even in the technical sense strives with the dark forms of earthly in which the word "evangelical" is used, trial until it compels from them a blessthough he was a strong and enthusiastic ing. He fought boldly and with great opponent of all the narrow Calvinistic tenacity in the Pan-Anglican Synod for a views. We indicated the source of this broader view of Christianity than that when we said that the Bishop chiefly very timid Assembly was at all inclined thought of divine influence as limited to to admit. He was a bold and keen oppoour conscious life, and disliked, as a form nent of the Athanasian Creed and the of superstition, any belief which ascribed doctrine of everlasting punishment as atmuch value to channels of divine influ- taching to heterodox doctrine, which that ence outside the sphere of conscious ex- creed conveys in so startling a form. It perience. One of the passages in the Bi-was not against sacredotalism only that ble which evidently had the most tena- he contended. It was against everything cious hold both on his heart and his im- that he thought a gospel not of light and agination, was the account of Jacob's love, but of darkness and fear. His was wrestling with the angel until he wruhg not a massive, but it was by no means a from him a blessing. That story of a pliant mind. His faith threw off from it victory of conscious human need over the all that was inconsistent with it with a mysterious external agents of God's Prov-completeness and certainty of which few idence, a victory won by perseverance and minds could boast. Evangelic, eager, suffering, and resulting in a crisis so def- gentle, childlike, sweet, thoroughly perinite as to be marked even by a change sonal in his religious devotion, keen in of name from "Jacob" to "Israel," had repelling what he thought falsehood, he a special fascination of its own for Dr. was a bishop of the Johannine type, if Ewing, which appears not once, or twice, there were one on earth, but to these or thrice, but half a dozen times at least qualities he added others which it is not even in the thin volume of sermons which easy to ascribe to any Hebrew, and least he has left behind him. We can hardly of all to St. John, especially a playfulgive a distincter conception of the high-ness and humour which helped him to est side of his mind than by extracting understand the world, and helped the the conclusion of the first sermon on world to understand him. "the Unknown God," suggested by the From The Pall Mall Gazette. THE DUTCH COLONIAL SYSTEM. 66 tween them extend luxuriant rice-grounds, watered by an elaborate system of irrigaNOT a little irritation appears to have tion that would be the pride of the best been excited in Holland by the comments cultivated parts of Europe." And his reon the Dutch colonial system in which marks on Lombock are in the same strain: some of our contemporaries indulged on It was now that I first obtained an adethe occasion of the recent Dutch defeat quate idea of one of the most wonderful before Atchin. And it must be admitted systems of cultivation in the world, equalthat a little hesitation before passing a ling all that is related of Chinese industry, sweeping condemnation on the policy and, as far as I know, surpassing in the pursued by Holland in the East would labour that has been bestowed upon it any be not unbecoming in writers who have tract of equal extent in the most civilized to rely on second-hand information. Cer- countries of Europe." And from this tain it is, at any rate, that Mr. Wallace, island it must be understood that “all who spent eight years in the Indo-Malay Europeans, except a few traders at the archipelago, speaks of it in very different port, are jealously excluded." Mr. Walterms. Describing his visit to Java, Mr. lace, however, relies less on the high Wallace says, "I believe that the Dutch | state of cultivation of Java to prove the system is the very best that can be beneficence of Dutch rule than on the adopted when a European nation con- extraordinary increase which has taken quers or otherwise acquires possession place in the population during the presof a country inhabited by an industrious ent century. It appears that between but semi-barbarous people." And again, 1826 and 1865, a period of no more than having explained what the system is, he thirty-nine years, the increase has been sums up: "On the whole the people from 5,500,000 to 14,168,416. But when are well fed and decently clothed, and we call to mind the rapid increase of the have acquired habits of steady industry Irish population between 1801 and 1845, and the art of scientific cultivation, which and the result to which it led, we may must be of service to them in the future." well doubt whether such growth is altoTo judge the matter fairly, however, it gether a healthy sign. Still, making all must not be forgotten that long before allowance which may be thought necesHolland became a nation, Java was the sary for over-favourable judgment, Mr. seat of a very respectable civilization, Wallace's testimony seems to dispose of which has left magnificent ruins which to much of the current criticism of the this day excite the admiration of the Eu- Dutch colonial system. When the popropean traveller. It is quite possible, ulation is really barbarous, at any rate, therefore, that the "steady industry" at there seems no room at all to doubt that least is an inheritance from the past, not the system works admirably. Thus in a habit learned from the Dutch. And the north of Celebes Mr. Wallace tells the possibility of this becomes a proba- us that within the memory of persons bility of a very high degree when we still living the inhabitants of the several learn that the neighbouring islands of villages formed distinct tribes_constantly Bali and Lombock are equally carefully at war with one another. To protect cultivated. The Baleese are independ- themselves from attack they built their ent, and are Hindoos in religion, and houses on long poles. They were headLombock was conquered by them a gen-hunters, and, it is said, sometimes cannieration ago. Of Bili Mr. Wallace writes, bals. 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